We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rusty Tucker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rusty below.

Hi Rusty, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always loved to cook. I grew up learning to bake biscuits with my grandfather Jerome, make cakes and pies with my Grandma Hazel, and cooking Bar-B-Q in the backyard with my dad, Jerry. But it’s not just the cooking, it is the joy of entertaining others; the satisfaction of a job well done; and the immediate validation that comes with the compliments to the chef!

The idea for a bar-b-q restaurant specifically came to me the summer of 2006. I had been working in restaurants and doing some catering gigs on the side. My dad’s business partner hired me to cater a bachelor’s weekend at the lake for a friend’s son. They hired me to cook ribs and pork butts, beans, potato salad, and banana pudding. I drove out to the lake early on a Saturday morning and lit a fire. I smoked meat and sat on the most serene lake all day. Eventually, party time rolled around and the guys showed up – everyone loved the food and at the end of the day, as I was driving home, I thought maybe I was on to something. I had checked all of the boxes that I loved about cooking: I got to play host to a crowd of appreciative guests; I felt I had done a great job of executing the catering; and everyone was going out of the way to tell me how much they enjoyed it (many of them while enthusiastically pressing $20 bills into my hand as a tip!) Reflecting on the day I kept thinking I would have done it for free!

Rusty, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

tell our readers about yourself: I was born and raised in Birmingham, AL. I attended Johnson & Wales University where I graduated with an associate degree in Culinary Arts and a Bachelor degree in Food Service Management. This is also where I met my wife, Beth, who was studying to become a pastry chef.

how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc: My first paid cooking job was for the lunch lady at my high school, Jennifer Grissom. She and her husband, Leeth, ran a catering company called The Dinner Circle and needed help with some weddings. She knew I loved to cook, so she offered me a job. Just a few years later Leeth would come work for me at Rusty’s Bar-B-Q for the first several years of our business. We remain good friends and I look to them both as mentors in the culinary world. My first real restaurant job was at DeVinci’s Pizza in Homewood, AL. I lasted about two months, but I soaked in the experience like a sponge and I’ve been hooked on restaurants ever since.

what type of products/services/creative works you provide: Rusty’s Bar-B-Q is a local mom and pop bar-b-q restaurant and catering business that strives to provide great southern hospitality. In addition to our smoked meats, traditional southern side dishes, and homemade desserts, we also cater weddings, and corporate events of all sizes.
what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. We take pride in our work. I’ve recently had one of our larger clients tell me that they choose to use our catering services not only because the food is delicious, but because of the level of professionalism with which our team conducts themselves. Another client recently told me that he likes to use us for all of the office catering needs because “I don’t have to worry about it. I call and give you the details, and it’s done. – no worrying about if or when the food is going to show up.”

What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.:

I am very proud of our team. We have been open for almost 17 years. I have staff members who have been with me for up to 15 of those years. Seeing how our team members grow and develop is an absolute pleasure. But it’s not just the ones who are still here, but the fact that people who have worked for me over the years remain lifelong friends. We’ve watched them grow from having their first job at Rusty’s to moving on to college, careers, marriages, parenthood, and so on. We get to be a small part of their ongoing story. It’s a cool legacy to see unfolding.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When we first opened, everyone in town wanted to try the new restaurant. On top of that, Bob Carlton from the Birmingham News had written an article about us which ran front page of the dining section on the second day we were open! The first few days were chaos! Hundreds of guests lining up out the door to try us out. We ran out of food!

And then… fewer and fewer people showed up. A few weeks in we had a day where I had sold $250 all day. lunch and dinner. I was having doubts as to how we would be able to make things work – how can I support a staff, much less myself, on $250 a day sales (not profit). I was 24 years old, newly married, and had to figure it all out. I started thinking about it. I googled “how to run a restaurant”. I started asking honest questions: What is wrong with my business? Why are the people not coming in? Was the food good? Was it great? Was it great enough to drive past the other 7 bar-b-q places that you have to pass between my parent’s house and the restaurant?
We started to ask for honest feedback from the customers, and working to continually improve.
It got better, but it started with having to really be honest about where we were and where we were going.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Covid was the biggest pivotal moment in business for everyone. We had been hearing some news reports in early March of 2020 that this was a big deal. I had no idea what to do (nobody did) – So I called our local Chick-Fil-A. They seem to be the industry leader in so many things, so I just asked the store operating partner “What do we do?” and he said – “Corporate just handed down the orders that we’re going to be drive thru only starting Monday”. I decided that if that’s what Chick-Fil-A is doing, then that’s what we’ll do, too. One problem: we didn’t have a drive thru. The window existed, but we just were not properly set up for drive thru service. We tried our best, but we didn’t have a menu board, a speaker/ intercom system, or drink fountain. Again, I get by with a little help from my friends: I called Van Sykes at Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q and he walked me through how to set it all up. We closed for about a month while we “flattened the curve”, and while I was busy with contractors and installs setting up a drive thru that works. It saved our business by being able to still cook and provide service with a smile to our guests – even if it was behind a mask.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rustysbarbq.com
• Instagram: @rustysbarbq
• Facebook: facebook.com/rustysbarbq
• Twitter: @rustysbarbq
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rustys-bar-b-q-leeds